Changes to Nighthold, classes, and Artifact Power items in latest WoW hotfixes

Achievements

• “Pillars of Creation” now properly requires the completion of the quest “The Eye of Aman’thul” to satisfy the appropriate criteria.

Classes

• Druid
  • Balance
    • Soul of the Forest will maintain its damage increase at 1, 2, and 3 stacks of Lunar and Solar Empowerments.
  • Guardian
    • Fixed a bug that caused Ironfur’s duration to be inaccurate when modified by time effects.
  • Feral
    • Increased the damage of most Feral spells and abilities by 8% (Ashamane’s Frenzy, Brutal Slash, Ferocious Bite, Maim, Moonfire, Rake, Shred, Swipe, Thrash, Rip).
      • Developers’ Notes: Feral’s playstyle feels good, but isn’t putting up the numbers that it should be, so we’re giving them an across-the-board damage buff.
• Hunter
  • Combat Experience (Pet Passive) now increases the damage of primary pets by 60% (was 50%).
    • Developers’ Notes: This is primarily a damage buff to Beast Mastery, but will have a tiny benefit to Survival and occasionally Marksmanship as well.
  • Marksmanship
    • Arcane Shot now generates 8 Focus (was 5).
    • Multi-Shot now generates 3 Focus per target hit (was 2).
    • Sidewinders damage increased by 33%.
      • Developers’ Notes: Marksmanship has given a lot of feedback that the rotation often winds up casting too many consecutive Focus generators.  We are making two changes: first, helping avoid that problem by increasing the Focus generation of Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot. Second, making it more attractive to use Sidewinders in more situations, for players who prefer the pacing of the rotation with that talent.
• Mage
  • Arcane
    • Increased the damage of most Arcane spells and abilities by 8% (Arcane Barrage, Arcane Blast, Arcane Explosion, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Orb, Nether Tempest, Supernova).
    • Overpowered now increases the damage and mana cost bonuses of Arcane Power to 60% (was 70%).
    • Amplification now increases Arcane Missiles damage by 12% (was 15%).
      • Developers’ Notes: Arcane has been doing well in Patch 7.1.5, but its numbers are lacking a bit. We’re giving them an across-the-board damage buff, but tempering that with small reductions to a couple of new talents that are proving to be too strong.
  • Fire
    • Increased the damage of most Fire spells and abilities by 3% (Blast Wave, Cinderstorm, Dragon’s Breath, Fire Blast, Fireball, Flame Patch, Flamestrike, Living Bomb, Meteor, Phoenix Flames, Pyroblast, Scorch).
    • Pyroblast mana cost reduced by 20%.
    • Flamestrike mana cost reduced by 17%.
      • Developers’ Notes: Under certain circumstances, it was possible for Fire to run out of mana. It’s only intended that mana is a constraint on Fire’s utility, not its damage.
  • Frost
    • Increased the damage of most Frost spells and abilities by 4% (Ebonbolt, Blizzard, Cone of Cold, Flurry, Frost Bomb, Frostbolt, Frozen Orb, Ice Lance, Ice Nova, Waterbolt, Ray of Frost, Water Jet).
    • Comet Storm damage increased by 30%.
    • Flurry now fires its missiles faster.
      • Developers’ Notes: Comet Storm is failing to live up to expectations, so we’re buffing its damage. The Flurry change will help Flurry feel more responsive, while simultaneously solving a potential issue where Winter’s Chill could apply to two Ice Lances (instead of just one, as intended) at extremely high Haste levels.
• Monk
  • Brewmaster
    • Keg Smash damage increased by 10%, and it no longer deals reduced damage to 6+ targets.
    • Breath of Fire damage increased 11%.
      • Developers’ Notes: Brewmasters could use a bit of help on damage, especially in AoE.
    • Dampen Harm will now calculate its damage reduction % based on the size of the hit before Stagger (was after).
  • Mistweaver
    • Essence Font’s periodic effect can now correctly critical heal.
  • Windwalker
    • Fixed a bug where Storm, Earth, and Fire clones would stop using abilities after their target died.
• Paladin
  • Retribution
    • Crusade now increases damage and Haste by 3% per stack (was 3.5%).
    • Blade of Justice damage increased by 20%, unchanged in PvP.
      • Developers’ Notes: Retribution’s total damage is looking quite strong in 7.1.5, which is fine on its own. However, how that damage is delivered matters quite a bit as well. We’ve been seeing more and more than Paladins find that the optimal way to maximize their performance is to focus everything they can on boosting their damage during Crusade. This creates a number of problems, including: Crusade feels mandatory, your damage feels very unrewarding outside of Crusade, trinkets and artifact traits are viewed as either amazing or terrible based on whether they synergize with Crusade, and others.
      • As such, we’re going to tone down Crusade, and compensate with a buff to Blade of Justice. For those that had maximized Crusade to an extreme degree, this may result in a small overall nerf – this is intended. This change also helps prevent Divine Hammer from being too dominant in single-target situations.
• Rogue
  • Subtlety
    • Shadow Dance should no longer sometimes consume a charge but fail to trigger.
• Warlock
  • Destruction
    • Chaos Bolt damage increased by 9%.
    • Rain of Fire damage increased by 30%.
    • Cataclysm damage increased by 29%.
      • Developers’ Notes: Destruction’s damage isn’t as high as it should be. In particular, some of its spells that should feel the most rewarding aren’t hitting hard enough, especially in AoE situations. We’re buffing the damage of those spells.

Dungeons and Raids

• Mythic Keystone Dungeons
  • Players who complete a Mythic Keystone dungeon at level 13, 14, or 15 will receive items of the following item levels from the chest at the end of the dungeon:
    • Mythic 13 – 875
    • Mythic 14 – 880
    • Mythic 15 – 885
  • Items from the weekly Grand Challenger’s Bounty will be of the following item levels:
    • Mythic 13 – 890
    • Mythic 14 – 895
    • Mythic 15 – 900

• The Nighthold
  • High Botanist Tel’arn
    • High Botanist Tel’arn now takes more time between using abilities on Normal difficulty.
    • High Botanist Tel’arn should now correctly obey loot settings on Mythic difficulty.
  • Gul’dan
    • Resolved an issue where Resonant Barrier would fail to apply its effects if the player was under the effects of immunities.
    • Resolved an issue where the Essence of Aman’thul abilities would disappear from players when using an immunity effect.
  • Spellblade Aluriel
    • Spellblade Aluriel’s Fiery Enchantments should no longer gain Bound in Flame on Raid Finder and Normal difficulties.
• Maw of Souls
  • Resolved an issue that caused the visual for Six Pound Barrel cast by Waterlogged Soul Guards to be smaller than intended.
• Siege of Orgrimmar
  • Fixed a bug where Garrosh Hellscream would not drop loot on Raid Finder difficulty.
• Fixed a bug where some Warlords dungeon bosses were not always dropping loot.
• The Windwalker Monk Vestments of Enveloped Dissonance 2-piece bonus and the Restoration Druid Garb of the Astral Warden 4-piece bonus should now scale down correctly in Timewalking dungeons.

Items

• Artifact Power items now have a sell price.
• Aluriel’s Mirror: Healing-over-time effectiveness increased by 140%. Area of effect healing detonation effectiveness reduced by 35%.
  • Developers’ Notes: Aluriel’s Mirror’s detonation effect is strong when it activates, but hard to rely on. We’re increasing the heal-over-time effect significantly to improve the up-front value of this trinket, and reducing the detonation effect slightly to compensate.
• Animated Exoskeleton: Absorb amount increased by 33%.
• Arcanogolem Digit: Damage increased by 30%.
• Claw of the Crystalline Scorpid: Damage increased by 30%.
• Convergence of Fates:
  • (Frost Death Knight) Proc rate increased by 10% with Empower Rune Weapon, decreased by 23% with Hungering Rune Weapon.
  • (Unholy Death Knight) Proc rate increased by 68% with Summon Gargoyle, and no change with Dark Arbiter.
  • (Feral Druid) Fixed a bug that prevented Incarnation from working properly with Convergence, and no change with Berserk.
  • (Windwalker Monk) Proc rate decreased by 62% with Storm, Earth, and Fire, and decreased by 75% with Serenity.
  • (Retribution Paladin) Proc rate increased by 250% with Avenging Wrath, and increased by 25% with Crusade.
• Draught of Souls: The Use effect of this trinket now respects the global cooldown. The damage of this trinket is now reduced by 30% for Unholy Death Knights (was reduced by 40%).
  • Developers’ Notes: Since Draught of Souls deals Shadow Damage, it’s increased by Unholy’s Mastery, which means we needed to reduce its base damage to keep its overall value similar to other classes. It’s currently a little too low, however, so we’re increasing the damage it deals for Unholy.
• Entwined Elemental Foci: The amount of Critical Strike, Mastery, and Haste granted by this item has been increased by 5%.
• Etraeus’ Celestial Map: The amount of Critical Strike, Mastery, and Haste granted by this item has been increased by 5%.
• Fury of the Burning Sky: Damage increased by 40%.
• Icon of Rot: Damage increased by 40%.
• Might of Krosus:
  • Damage reduced by 25%, but is now always a critical strike.
  • Fixed a bug where the cooldown was incorrectly being reduced if Might of Krosus damaged at least 3 targets. The tooltip for Might of Krosus will display the amount of damage that will result from the critical hit, not the base damage.
  • Fixed an issue where Might of Krosus would not split its damage among affected targets.
  • Fixed a bug that caused Might of Krosus to deal less damage to its targets than intended.
• Perfectly Preserved Cake: Absorb amount increased by 140%.
• Pharamere’s Forbidden Grimoire: Damage increased by 85%.
• Star Gate: Damage increased by 30%.
• Windwalker Monks who unequip the Vestments of Enveloped Dissonance should no longer gain the 4-piece bonus.
• Feretory of Souls should no longer be activated by a spell that did not complete casting.

Player versus Player

• All Artifact Power rewards from Rated PvP have been substantially increased.
  • Note: The PvP UI will not properly reflect the amount of Artifact Power that will be rewarded until a future patch.
• Season 19 Achievements that should not have been granted have been correctly removed.
• You can no longer target a flag carrier with Guardian of the Forgotten Queen.
• Demon Hunter
  • Eye of Leotheras will no longer scale with increased damage, and instead will always deal a maximum of 6% of the target’s health in damage each time it activates.
• Druid
  • Guardian Druids now have 5% less Agility in PvP.
  • Sharpened Claws does not cause Thrash to cost 15 Rage.
• Hunter
  • Survival Hunters now have 7.5% less Agility in PvP.
• Mage
  • Ray of Frost cannot be channeled if the Mage is interrupted and locked out of the Frost School, as intended.
• Warlock
  • Cremation now correctly only applies the damage-over-time effect of Immolate. Cremation no longer allows Havoc to spread Immolate to a target who is out of line of sight of the Warlock when Incinerate or Immolate are cast.
• Paladin
  • Protection Paladins now have 5% less Strength in PvP.
  • Hand of the Protector and Light of the Protector now heal for 35% less in PvP situations (was 15% less).
• Priest
  • Vampiric Touch now deals 10% less damage in PvP situations (was 25% less).
• Shaman
  • Elemental
    • Icefury and Icefury Overload’s damage is reduced by 35% in PvP situations.
    • Icefury now increases the damage of Frost Shock by 300% in PvP situations.
    • Elemental Blast and Elemental Blast Overload’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP situations.
    • Damage to pets and guardians will no longer contribute to Lightning Rod damage in Arenas and Battlegrounds.
  • Enhancement
    • Windfury can no longer be activated by Windfury Totem’s Windfury.

Professions

• Archaeology
  • The Nor’danil Wellspring digsite is no longer displayed in the middle of the ocean.

Quests

• Players on the quest “Fate of the Nightborne” will no longer be sent into a separate phase of the Nighthold until they have spoken to Oculeth to begin the quest.
• Felsworn Defilers now spawn in more locations during “The Felsworn Must Fall”.
• Fixed an issue where the Eye of Gul’dan would sometimes not be able to be looted after killing Gul’dan in Nighthold for players on the quest “Nighthold: Darkness Calls”.